Pratica di Shadowing: Unit 5 - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

As part of our study of the brain's various functions, we're going to look at the topic of memory.

This is a fascinating topic, really.

Now, who remembers what they ate for lunch last Monday?

I remember having pizza.

That's memory at work.

A simple definition of memory is the ability to store, retain, and recall the information.

It sounds simple, but if you think about it, in many ways we are our memories.

When we think about who we are, we probably think about the events we've experienced, the people we've known, as well as the opinions and the feelings we have about a great many things.

All of this information is stored in a variety of brain systems that handle the different types of memory.

So first, let's look at three types of memory that have been identified by psychologists, Then I'll talk about how we can improve our memories.

The first type of memory is sensory memory.

Sensory memory is extremely short.

It generally lasts about 100 to 500 milliseconds.

As the name suggests, sensory memory concerns the initial moment that we perceive something with our senses.

For instance, consider tactile sensory memory.

If you touch a piece of silk, the memory of the smoothness of the silk will continue after you take your hand away.

That's sensory memory at work.

Now it's important for learning and remembering because using more senses means we've recorded the experience in more ways in our brain.

The next type of memory is working memory, which is extremely important in everyday life.

Working memory is a system where we temporarily hold and manipulate information.

You think of it as a temporary workspace in your mind.

For instance, if your friend tells you a phone number and you don't have a pen, you probably repeat the number several times in your mind so that you remember it.

In that case, you're using working memory.

Now it's absolutely crucial for performing common mental operations like adding numbers,

following directions, and understanding logical relationships between ideas.

Finally there's what's called long-term memory,

which is memory that's stored for as little as 30 seconds to as long as your entire lifetime.

Now psychologists believe that most long-term memories are information and experiences that were initially processed in working memory,

in meaningful and perhaps in emotional ways.

For instance, I clearly remember the first time I saw the Grand Canyon.

I was only 15 years old,

but the size just amazed and impressed me so much that even decades later it's still very clear in my mind.

Now there are two subtypes of long-term memory.

There's declarative memory and procedural memory.

Declarative memory is all of the facts and ideas and names that are consciously available to you.

All of your experiences and conscious memories fall into this category.

Procedural memory concerns your knowledge of moving your body.

Like when you ride a bicycle or you play a musical instrument.

Most of our procedural memories are implicit and unconscious.

Okay, now I'm going to test your memory memory with this question.

Does anyone remember what I said I'd talk about next?

How to improve your memory, right?

When we think about improving our memory, we're generally talking about improving our declarative memory, the one that stores the facts and the names and so on.

This type of memory can be improved if we use certain strategies.

So I want to talk about two types of memory strategies that are useful in school.

Cognitive strategies and affective strategies.

Now, cognitive strategies tell us how to approach tasks and which methods to use to complete them.

So basically, they're concerned with thinking in more effective ways.

Okay, let's take a quick look at one cognitive strategy, this one's called verbal elaboration.

A verbal elaboration occurs when we talk in a meaningful way about information that we are trying to remember.

And that means that as you study, you should think about and verbalize information critically.

You can use this strategy by agreeing or disagreeing with the information, or by comparing and contrasting the information to ideas you already know,

or by discussing relationships between ideas.

When we make meaningful relationships between what we already know and what we're trying to learn, we'll remember more and we'll remember it longer.

Now, for the other approach, affective strategies.

Affective strategies help us control our emotional responses so that we remember better.

What do emotions have to do with memories?

Well, emotions cause the release of brain chemicals that play a direct role in memory formation.

And part of the emotion system in the brain, called the limbic system, helps transfer information into long-term memory.

In other words, how you feel about something affects how well you remember it.

So, what affective strategies can you use to create positive emotional responses while studying?

First, study with one or two friends from class.

This can make any study session more interesting, more enjoyable.

Second, use interesting study tasks like taking turns, making short presentations on a topic that you're studying.

Or come up with questions to test each other on the information.

See, the point of trying the affective strategy is that it will increase not only your memory, but also your sense of fun and challenge and interest.

And you can do this for any subject.

Now, are there any questions?

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.

Pratica di Shadowing: Unit 5 - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Perché praticare a parlare con questo video?

Grammatica e espressioni nel contesto

Trappole di pronuncia comuni

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?